This episode was doing so well. SO WELL.

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Legend of Korra is definitely better watched with a friend. My roommate had missed the past two weeks, so we watched the last three episodes together and spent the entire time laughing about Verrick as Stephen Colbert. It was great.

But this week's episode...

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Honestly, my main thought about this episode?

SKY BISON BABIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They justified the existence of this episode. I mean, I liked the rest of the episode, but. Come on. Sky bison babies.


( Real spoilers behind the cut )

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about.

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I had other thoughts, but I'm home with family for the weekend, so they've kind of flown out of my mind. But all in all, I enjoyed this episode a LOT more than the premiere, and I'm legitimately excited for next week.

It's a square-headed lion... Don't you think it's very similar to you? ... Shouldn't a lion have a full-head mane? But there is one lion, it was born with a square mane. Then from this difference, it is often stuck. Stuck in its own principle. Stuck in a struggle, thinking whether to compromise or not. Stuck in confusion, thinking what if the whole world was right and only my commitment was wrong.

I really, really loved In Time With You. I wasn't expecting to. I had really liked Ariel Lin in It Started with a Kiss and Lovesick, but I didn't love them. They make use of some romcom tropes that just aren't my thing. I wasn't expecting this to be any different. But this was.


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I don't know what I'd do without The Mary Sue, which linked me to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, aka what would happen if Lizzie Bennet lived in 2012 and decided to do a video blog about her life (plus a tumblr, plus twitter, plus facebook...). It's hilarious, and the writing & acting are really superb. As entertainment, I highly recommend it.

As a Jane Austen fan who overanalyzes the shit out of things, I have thoughts.
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I started listening to A Nerd of Advice today, which bills itself as an etiquette guide for nerds and is co-hosted by an author I really enjoy.

It felt oddly...prescriptive, to me, and occasionally suggested basically impossible things. (You can guess what someone's intention is when they say or do something, but you can never actually know.) The impression I got -- recognizing that impression is not intention and what I heard is not necessarily what they meant to say -- was that social rules are really really really complicated but if you work really really really hard, you'll never have to deal with awkwardness again.


It got me thinking about my own internal etiquette guide, which is less a guide and more a cost-benefit analysis. There are no right or wrong answers; it's what feels right for you.

Simplistic example:
Somebody talks to you in a way you don't like. If you speak up, you can get the behavior to stop, but you might be seen as a bitch. If you don't speak up, the behavior will continue, but you'll be seen as a nice person.

You weigh the result (getting the behavior to stop) against the cost (no longer being seen as nice) and decide whether it's worth it to you. Sometimes social conditioning or anxiety or other things make it hard to make that evaluation with a clear head, in which case things like therapy can be helpful.

But only you can decide what you value, and what price you are willing to pay for it.



Also, awkward is inevitable, and an awkward conversation is not the worst thing in the world. If I were to write a book for my internal etiquette, on the cover, printed in big, comforting letters, would be "AWKWARD IS INEVITABLE. Don't panic."

The first ten minutes had me worried. Lucas is basically King Midas of shitty dialogue, and I felt it was especially egregious in the beginning of the film. He was showing and telling at the exact same time, like the film was supposed to be for 5 year olds, and setting things up so hamhandedly that I was all ready to go: "...god damn it, Lucas, why do you do this to us?" (with appropriate raegface).

Then it got awesome, mostly due to the incredibly talented cast. By the end of the movie, I was sick from sobbing and too much popcorn - the best kind of sick to be, honestly. It packed one hell of an emotional wallop, even though 75% of the time I knew what was coming.

I have my quibbles with it - the Sofia storyline was cheap emotional manipulation; in a movie full of well-rounded characters, the lone woman had less humanity than a Disney animal sidekick; and the music could be eye-rollingly overwrought - but the rest of the movie is strong enough that they really are just quibbles. If I had friends who lived less than an hour away, this is totally a film I would drag them to see in theaters.


My only regret seeing in the theater was the previews. Normally? My favorite part of the movie. But when you're a pacifist anti-racist feminist going to see a war movie...yeeeeeeah. One had an interesting sci-fi premise except the lone female character's role was princess in the tower futuristic space prison. Another had humor and an all-black cast, but was premised on such hetero/sexist ideas that I wanted to barf ("Act like a woman. Think like a man.). There was the preview for Battleship, where a Hispanic woman shared the Mystic Foresight of her grandfather in a wonderful show of romantic racism. And then there was a film whose sole selling point seemed to be real Active Navy SEALS were the actors, and had a bunch of white guys blowing shit up to save a captured female soldier and beating up a (brown) terrorist and I honestly have no fucking idea what the plot is except BLOW SHIT UP and TERRORISM and YAY WHITE AMERICAN MEN.


So seriously, everyone, go see Red Tails. We need more films like this in the world, and less films like everything else they fucking advertised.


This is Avatar Korra, and she approves of this message.

Title: Much Ado About Nothing
Directed By: Josie Rourke
Run: Over, but you can purchase a digital download from Digital Theater. I honestly recommend holding out for a dvd; I've had a terrible experience with Digital Theater.
If you liked: fourth series of Doctor Who, Shakespeare

I really hate that poster. Come on, designer, it's a COMEDY! There is absolutely nothing of Beatrice or Benedick's personality in that thing.

But this isn't about that poster. It's about the play. The play, the play. The play's the thing. Overall, I really enjoyed it (I've watched it several times since purchasing), though despite my passionate love for Catherine Tate and my warm feelings for David Tennant, I think overall I prefer the 1993 Emma Thompson version. At some point, I'll probably write a comparison of the two versions, because I think they made some fascinatingly different artistic decisions, but that point is not now.

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Title: The Book of Mormon
Book, Music, & Lyrics By: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone
On Broadway: Yes
If you liked: South Park, Spamalot

I've been meaning to check out The Book of Mormon for awhile. I am the anti-thesis of a South Park fan, but I had heard such amazing things about it, and the interview with Jon Stewart peaked my interest. So when I discovered that the album was available on Spotify, I gave it a listen.

My feelings are… extremely mixed.

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( Review by song )